Womack and Jones, the authors of The Machine That Changed the World and creators of the "lean enterprise" theory, take leanness to the next step with a focus on what the customer really wants, not what it is possible to get him to accept. This is the management book for the next business generation.

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There is some good content here. I suppose. There's got to be, because Womack's work has been so influential with very smart people.
BUT, this is the best example I know of why you want a professional reader. Womack's narration is like a lethargic robotic toad reading aloud a tax return form. And I think this abridgement misses some of the good stuff. I was very motivated to learn about Lean Thinking, but still I could hardly listen to it. Avoid.

Womacks voice is possibly the worst narration I have come across. The information is exceptional, but is almost impossible to assimilate because of his voice. If ever there was an argument for authors hiring professional readers, it is this book.

I have been part of supply chain management software support of a long time now and have gone through the various phases mentioned in the book. I've developed software to "optimize" the islands of production described and worked with others who would seek to "optimize" safety stocks. All because the process is broken -- we don't look at the entire value chain.

This is a must listen (probably to be followed up with a must-read book) for those seeking to transform their business or establish a new business.

My favorite passage is thoughts on low cost geographies and where to position fabrication facilities. The only time (according to the author) it makes sense to location production in low cost geographies? The product is overwhelmingly ruled by cost *AND* there is sufficient stability to create very accurate forecasts. Even then, you must consider exhange rate variances and political (here and abroad) variances.

Overall, this is an excellent listen. Additional literature is available, but I haven't found any follow-up listens on audible.com.

This book is high level. If you want to understand lean read The Goal. I really didn't gain anything from this book. I also found Womack's voice hard to listen to. Between not gaining any value added information and that fact this was hard for me to listen to I scored this one star.

I think it was a mistake to have the author read his book. He has the inflexion of a seasoned businessman who is talking to you at a bar. He is believable but still not a professional voice reader. The content itself is interesting but I think it changes focus and style enough to be distracting. It may go from explaining Japanese-inspired business principles to extremely detailed descriptions of the smelting of bauxite. It made me wonder if the book was aimed to general readership or only to executives that own manufacturing plants. But some interesting information can be extracted.

All what lean is about in a nutshell. Being an experience operations person, I think you can always use a good refresher of all lean concepts.
Highly recommend this book both to experienced and beginners in the lean field.

This book would certainly benefit from some lean management, it takes four hours to say what could be said in about an hour and a half! If you have any interest in producing an aluminium cola can then you are very fortunate as the author takes about twenty minutes describing the full process...it's painful!

Having said that, I am probably being a little over critical because I was hoping for a strategic overview of the main principles and not a detailed operational step by step description.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Darragh Woods

1/25/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great book but someone else should have narrated"

I am very much an admirer of James Womacks work. having read this before I got the audio book to brush up. James Woman should not have narrated it himself. He is unfortunately monotonous to listen to.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Big__Al

12/3/09

Overall

"Buy it, Read it, Live it"

Fantastic introduction to Lean systems - would recomend it to anyone.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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